It has long been known that the primary engineering challenges for producing effective sharp-edged cutting tools are the shaping and manufacturing of an effective sharp edge, the durability of the sharp edge against mechanical loads and environmental effects, and the cost of producing and maintaining sharp edges. As such, optimally the blade material should have very good mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, and the ability to be shaped into tight curvatures as small as 150 Angstroms.
Although sharp-edged cutting tools are produced from a variety of materials, each have significant disadvantages. For example, sharp-edged cutting tools produced from hard materials such as carbides, sapphire and diamonds provide sharp and effective cutting edges, however, these materials have a substantially higher manufacturing cost. In addition, cutting edges of blades made from these materials are extremely fragile due to the materials intrinsically low toughness.
Sharp-edged cutting tools made of conventional metals, such as stainless steel, can be produced at relatively low cost and can be used as disposable items. However, the cutting performance of these blades does not match that of the more expensive high hardness materials.
More recently it has been suggested to produce cutting tools made from amorphous alloys. Although amorphous alloys have the potential to provide blades having high hardness, ductility, elastic limit, and corrosion resistance at a relatively low cost, thus far the size and type of blade that can be produced with these materials has been limited by the processes required to produce alloys having amorphous properties. For example, cutting blades made with amorphous alloy are described in U.S. Pat. No. Re.29,989. However, the alloys described in the prior art must either be manufactured in strips with thicknesses no greater than 0.002 inch, or deposited on the surface of a conventional blade as a coating. These manufacturing restrictions limit both the types of blades that can be made from amorphous alloys and the full realization of the amorphous properties of these alloys.
Accordingly, there is a need for a cutting blade having good mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, and the ability to be shaped into tight curvatures as small as 150 Angstroms